CHSJ is committed to using rigorous research to buttress its policy advocacy as well as to constantly interrogate and refine its own intervention strategies. Research and review of public policies is therefore a core competence of CHSJ and it is an integral component of all work that the organization undertakes.

Research in CHSJ is broadly around two domains. The first is building evidence on the impact of programmes and policies on the health and well-being of people. Evidence based advocacy is a key strategy in CHSJ’s work towards making health policy and programming responsive to the needs and rights of the poor and marginalized, and research has served the function of building such evidence that CHSJ uses for advocacy. In the past 10 years of its existence, CHSJ has been able to establish its position and credibility as a unique health policy support organization that is bridging the gap between people’s needs and aspirations and the impact of public policies and programmes through its research and advocacy.

The second domain of research that the organization conducts could be categorized as implementation/evaluation research. Within this domain, the organization rigorously studies the impact of its various interventions to advance the discourse around development practice within the two broad themes of its work – engaging men in gender equality, and fostering social accountability in health. CHSJ uses a realist framework for evaluation of its interventions, which lays emphasis on not just what changes, but the how and why change occurs through complex social interventions, and how specific contexts mediate this change. Some of this research is conducted collaboratively with academic institutions in India and abroad.

Additionally, CHSJ lays great emphasis on building capacities of grassroots organizations in conducting research. It leverages its relationships with universities and academic institutions, both national and international, to train a cadre of grassroots researchers who can contribute to documenting and presenting evidence especially around implementation of policies at the ground.

Over the past 10 years, CHSJ has undertaken a number of studies which have been thematically organized as per the heads below.

RAPID ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH PROJECTS

In keeping with its commitment to generating grassroots evidence and building capacity of practitioners in research, CHSJ facilitated a process of systematic enquiry into health programme implementation. A three phase training programme on "Rapid Assessment of Health Project" (RAHP) for grass root organizations was implemented to involve them in the process of monitoring public health programmes by using research methods. Read more

EVALUATING HEALTH SYSTEMS

The objective is to track out- of- pocket spending on healthcare and increase communities’ involvement and interest in budget and expenditure tracking and to build their capacity to do monitoring of health expenditure at the village level. ​ Read more